Protesters won't face charges

Updated 7:28 am, Tuesday, May 8, 2012

ALBANY — A City Court judge has dismissed the cases of 20 Occupy Albany protesters arrested last week for violating the state curfew in Lafayette Park across from the Capitol.

Judge Thomas Keefe dismissed the trespassing and disorderly conduct charges — both noncriminal violations — Monday after District Attorney David Soares' office notified the court it would again decline to prosecute the offenses.

The protesters were arrested May 1 for staying in the park after an 11 p.m. curfew, the validity of which they refused to acknowledge.

Soares has refused to prosecute nonviolent protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights without damaging property or injuring police — a stance he reiterated last week when Occupy Albany prepared to return to the downtown parks in force for the first time since December.

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"I'm not going to be prosecuting peaceful protesters," Soares said last week. "So long as we have no damage to property or injury to police, I will continue to abide by the peaceful coexistence policy we implemented when the Occupy movement was here late last year."

That position led to the dismissal earlier this year of charges against 88 protesters arrested by State Police last year under similar circumstances. In that written decision, Keefe said Soares' decision not to prosecute left him little to no choice.

Charges of misdemeanor obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct against three protesters arrested after allegedly trying to set up a tent and table in the park earlier in the day May 1 have yet to be resolved.